22/04/2019
I\ am not so good with Reality. Comics served this discomfort with actuality by being largely fantasy and escapism of one sort or another. “Based on real life” as the intro to TV or film is always a good reason not to watch it.
One piece of reality is bothering me though – what is happening to our climate.
Comics have dealt with real life concerns - questions of racism, sexism, fascism, gender issues and homophobia - even in the outlandish setting of Superhero worlds. There are documentary and autobiographical comics.

28/03/2019
It is no secret that I have a bit of a thing about Captain Marvel, the 1940’s version.
http://www.arthurranson.com/blog/will-real-captain-marvel-please-stand

In that piece I suggested I might well go to see the film ‘Shazam’. In the event, encouraged by all the positive headlines, I have just seen the “Captain Marvel’ movie. The positive headlines seem to have been largely due to this film being seen as a ‘good thing’ because it is that rare thing, a female-led superhero film. The female hero is front and centre, the independently driving force of the story.

15/03/2019'
A possibility I was aware of but now publicly announced in the show biz mag Variety', Netflix intend to make a Button Man movie.
Having only myself heard this confirmation an hour or so I am still a little shell-shocked.
Here is a link to the announcement -

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/netflix-button-man-director-brian-he…

I am going to make myself a cup of tea

11/03/2019
Recently reported that my local library had closed its graphic novels section. http://www.arthurranson.com/blog/stolen-comics
Seems I was misinformed or they have had a change of heart since on my last visit there it was in all its glory with a wide variety of great books.
Since I am presently reading – ahem- a Dostoyevsky novel and feeling reading time constrained I restricted my self to taking two. But two fat ones.
“Sabrina’ written and drawn by Nick Ornaso
and . .
‘Logicomix – An Epic Search for Truth’ written by Arostolos Doxiadis and Christos H.

20/02/2019
Been a while.
Been busy making drawings in a sketch book and digitally with Paint. My fantasy is to share them one day in a nice glossy-page book. No one has asked for these, it is a vanity project all of my very own. After a long fallow period I am keen to draw again, so at least for the present the doing is more important to me than thoughts of public presentation.
There is once more talk of a Button Man movie. It is early stages so details can't be shared but if and when it actualises you shall be told.

06/02/2019
June Mills, ( 25.02. 1918 – 12. 12 1988) was a comic book artist. She worked under the name Tarpé Mills in order to disguise her gender from a reading public not ready to accept a woman writing and drawing adventure strips. June was one of the first major female comics artists. The strip she created was 'Miss Fury'. 'Miss Fury' was the first female action hero.
It was a Sunday paper strip, first printed early 1941. In 1942 some of the work was reprinted in comic book form.

Mike Noble, 17th September 1930 - 15th November 2018

Mike and I shared some time working for Look-in. I was a big admirer of his work and, seeing his ability at drawing the horses he was doing for ‘Follyfoot’, thought him the best drawer in the comic. For a short time I was privileged to be entrusted with colouring his ‘Robin of Sherwood’ strip.
Mike was a very nice and very modest man. A great loss.

In memory of Mike donations can be made to the Sussex Heart Charity

More stuff and pictures at -
ttps://downthetubes.net/?p=102470

07/01/2019
Looking at this web site recently it struck me that it's in danger of looking a little nostalgic - lots of Beano, Dandy, and the original Captain Marvel. I had so resolved to read more contemporary publications. I was relying on the local library to supply the raw material. That plan now shot.
Unlike many we still have a local library but it has ceased to have a Graphic Novels section. The reason being, I was told, is that too many of the comic books went missing. Pinched, purloined, nicked, nabbed, - stolen. Personal acquisitiveness over-ruling public good.

30/11/2018
Remember those ads once seen in comics? 'Make money from art. Learn to draw! Take our training course.' ?
Well to cash in you don't have to make art, trouble yourself to draw or paint or be creative. Let others will do that, then just buy some and wait a little.

Saw on the internet that the 'Bad' Anderson print that was on sale at Orbital for £50 is being offered at £100.
Could make one sorry you signed stuff.
Orbital comics still have copies of the print for £50. Probably signed copies but if not signed so what?

13/11/2018
Stan Lee 28/12/1922 - 12/11/ 2018

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/11/12/reaction-death-stan-lee/

08/11/2018
Polskie wydanie zbioru ośmiu opowiadań Sędziego Andersona jest dostępne w Studia Lain. Historie to "Szambala", "Powody do bycia czcigodnymi", "Raport czarownic", "Syndrom Jezusa" Szatana, R'evolution "i" Protest ".
Komiks zostanie wydany ze standardową i limitowaną okładką.
Pojawi się na tegorocznym Festiwalu Komiksu w Łodzi.
Mam okładkę "Bad" Andersona. Jest duży, piękny i błyszczący.
Do osób odpowiedzialnych za to produkowanie dziękuję za tak wspaniałą prezentację.

A Polish edition of a collection of eight Judge Anderson stories is available from Studia Lain.

32/10/2018
This was an idea I woke up with.
The two artists featured, Damien Hirst and Brian Bolland, were in my mind at that waking moment but most any other two with equivalent backgrounds could have served.
The idea was that the prestige of an artist can be based on their field of presentation rather than on their individual qualities and ability.

24/10/2018
Celebrating Snoopy and the Enduring Power of Peanuts

25 October 2018 – 3 March 2019
Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, London
Exhibition of comic strips and personal artefacts from the Schulz Museum plus contemporary works from contributors with a passion for Peanuts.
Peanuts was a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz .It ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000. It was a comic strip about funny kids if you like.

13/10/2018
November 12th 1947 - October 1st 2018
One of 2000AD's most regular and popular artists.
He is credited with the original visuals for Judge Dredd and was also co-creator of Strontium Dog.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/01/judge-dredd-co-creator-ca…

10/10/2018
The evening at Orbital, with the opening of an exhibition of my art work and book (and other stuff) signing, went, I think it is fair to say, well.

29/09/2018
Norman Keith Breyfogle. February 27, 1960 – September 24, 2018.
An American artist, best known for his comic book art on DC Comics' Batman, for which co-created the villains Ventriloquist and Ratcatcher with writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, and the characters Anarky, Jeremiah Arkham, Victor Zsasz, and Amygdala with Grant alone.

11/09/2018
An exhibition of some bits of my original artwork will be on show at Orbital Comics from October 5th to November 4th.

02/19/2018
Spellbound.Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft.
August 31st – January 6th
Ashmolean Museum,
Beaumont Street, Oxford
Oxfordshire OX1 2PH
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Architecture currently has, along with other treasures, an exhibition of objects relating to superstition, magical beliefs, witchcraft and the like.

20/08/2018
Hillary L. Chute is an American literary scholar and expert on comics and graphic narratives.
She is Distinguished Professor of English and Art and Design at Northeastern University.

05/08/2018
The Beano comic first appeared on 30 July 1938.
Pictured here are the few characters I could find from its early days - chosen because they were ones from my childhood so are of course the best. But Beano continued to create iconic characters throughout its long life.

27/07/2018
A comic book has been long.listed for Man Booker prize.

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the UK. It is prestigious and influential.
The book is 'Sabrina' by Nick Drnaso.

A comic book being included among the contenders for the prize means literary people regard this book as a literary work and are passing judgment on it as such.

16/07/2018
Thought this an interesting essay - https://comicsverse.com/5-wordless-comics/

08/07/2018
Stephen John Ditko.
2.11.1927 - c. 29. 6.2018

Steve Dikto was an artist who’s ‘Dr Strange’ work had an influence on me hitherto unacknowledged even to myself
Looking at that Dr Strange cover you can perhaps see how that might be.

More at -
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/08/steve-ditko-obituary

https://www.weeklystandard.com/kevin-binversie/steve-ditko-1927-2018-hi…

24/06/2018
For broadcast on June 27th.
Following the podcast in which I was involved comes another, a follow-up, involving a distinguished panel of experts discussing the quality and content of the former. A jury of my peers sharing their thoughts and feelings on me, my work and my Essex accent.

There is to be a show of my artwork at Orbital Comics this coming October.
This will overlap with the publication of a new edition of Mazeworld from Rebellion that same month.
What artwork will be exhibited is yet to be decided but present thinking is that Mazeworld pages will predominate.